The bright golden brown chicken snake--marked with narrow stripes along
the back, and from four to seven feet in length--in spite of its
beautiful and fangless mouth, is an unwelcome visitor in farmhouses when
it comes as a stranger, for it is apt to carry off fowls from their
roost--as well as their eggs--and will eat up a brood of ducklings
without ceremony.
However, as it is of an amiable disposition, it can easily be tamed; and
then, having learned good manners, it becomes a favourite, and
recompenses its protectors by killing the rats and mice which frequent
their premises.